Please take a moment to comment on this article about the struggle to practice evidenced based care in the medical community. Believing in Treatments That Don’t Work Here is my favorite quote: Treatment based on ideology is alluring. Surgeries to repair the knee should work. A syrup to reduce cough should help. Calming the straining …

On March 30 Governer Kaine signed HB 2163, giving final approval to a bill that will set an historic precedent for setting standards for informed choice in maternity care.  Effective July 1, 2009, regulations for Certified Professional Midwives will require that midwives disclose to their clients “evidenced based information” about the risks associated with vbac, breech, …

It was enough of a pleasant surprise when Consumer Reports analyzed maternity care in the US and gave the midwives model top ranking,”Maternity Care: High-tech vs high-touch“.  But when the stodgy and mainsteam biased Time Magazine comes out with a story this week in the Health and Science section titled “The Trouble with Repeat Cesareans“, you …

Start with two lemons: Two bills introduced by a freshman Delegate from Harrisonburg who “loves midwives” but lends his ear to obstetricians in his community who feel quite differently. Throw out the rotten fruit: HB 2167- a bill intended to eliminate VBAC births at home but written in a way that singled out low-income women from accessing midwives for normal …

Since your bill would essentially mandate surgery for the underprivileged women in your community, I highly encourage you to become educated about the risks of cesarean section, especially when a woman has more than one.  The maternal death rate is rising in our country.  The CDC has acknowledged that the death rates are actually under …

Please take action now to stop two bills HB 2163 and HB 2167 introduced into the House to limit the practice of Certified Professional Midwives.  These bills have been introduced by Delegate Matthew Lohr- Harrisonburg.    URGENT: Please send him an email TODAY telling him that you would like him to pull these bills from the …

This image by Susan Tibbles accompanied Jennifer Block’s Op-Ed about midwives. On Christmas Eve, Pushed author Jennifer Block opined in the LA Times that homebirth and Certified Professional Midwives must be key elements of Obama’s healthcare reform strategy.  Read the article or more cool stuff on Jennifer’s blog, PushedBirth. She highlights some pretty startling facts: Not …

I sat down this evening with a cup of tea to read all about the new publication Evidence-Based Maternity Care by Childbirth Connections, The Reforming States Group, and The Milbank Memorial Fund.

I gave the following speech at this morning’s meeting of the Virginia Board of Medicine.

After accepting the Birth Matters Virginia award in Richmond, VA on Sunday, August 10, 2008, I gave the following acceptance speech. Thank you so much for this recognition and for the opportunity to come together to celebrate our passions for safe and satisfying birth for mothers and babies. And thank you for giving me the …